Wednesday, 2 May 2007

I'm so lucky. I've been part of two really great international swaps this year. The first one was with Julie, she's from South Carolina, and it yielded some marvellous stuff. The most recent one, as in, 'the loot arrived today' recent, was with Amy from Rhode Island.

It's so great. I'm someone who's never quite gotten over the thrill of getting mail. In fact, getting real mail isn't as common as it used to be, now that we all communicate electronically, so when real stuff comes in the mail, I tend to jump around like five year old at Christmas.

I'm also very fortunate in that the women I've been involved in swaps with (including, locally, the fabulous Brown Pants) have taken such obvious pleasure and care in putting together a bunch of stuff to send far away to someone they've never met. I try and take the same level of care, because there's only one thing as much fun as getting stuff, it's finding out how much someone else enjoyed getting your stuff. Gratification all round!

So, to today's swap fun.

Amy sent me great stuff.

I've read a bit and heard a bit about Malabrigo yarn from Uruguay. Amy was talking about it on her blog around the time we decided to do a swap and I got a little bit excited. So she agreed to send me some. Yes, she is my supplier. he he

Here it is. The colour is Vermillion (I have always loved the word as much as the colour. Amy didn't know that. She's obviously got The Gift.)

It's so vivid and alluring. And the squish factor is very high. As you can see, I've had it in my possession for no fewer than three hours and I've already wound one ball. I did this because I'm not going to knit with it yet but I wanted to play with it. Sean was sniggering at me, I believe.

Amy also sent me some handspun from a local supplier called Bessie. The tag actually says, 'Yarn by Bessie', with a picture of a sheep. I like to think the sheep in the photo is called Bessie, and this wool came directly from her back.

I never said I wasn't a romantic.

I'm going to have to photograph this lovely stuff when I have access to daylight because this photo does no justice to the colour at all and I am nowhere near the writer I wish I was so there are no words I can find to describe this colour. It's blue. But it's so much more than that.

The colour is in no way as dark and dreary as that and I have no idea what I'm going to do with it but I will find something. You all may have figured out by now that, along with purple and red, blue is my thing. The steeked jacket and Mariah are both blue for a good reason. This handspun stuff is not blue, not green, and a bit of blue, and a bit of green all wrapped up in one beautiful skein.

I'm thrilled to bits with it all.

Right after I took that photo, my battery died and will now spend an eternity charging, so I just have to describe the other goodies.

Amy sent me a key ring that doubles as a bottle opener (unspeakably useful), a Rhode Island Rams baseball cap (I have none; this will be a useful addition to my minimal hat wardrobe, given I live in a country with high skin cancer rates); and a bottle of coffee syrup, a Rhode Island favourite. I believe I'm going to make us something to drink pretty much as soon as I hit publish.

Thank you Amy! Very much appreciated! Yours is only about 8 days away. :-)